I'll Be Coming Home
by midnights in rio
Summary: Steve Cortez and Robert Shepard met when the world was young and everything was possible. But all things must end. AU Cortez/ManShep
1. Chapter 1

"It won't be for too long."

His voice was a hum in his ears. If he reached over, he could touch his husband's warm skin, slide fingers over his abdomen and the contours of hard muscle. Robert was proud of those abs. So was Steve.

"You don't have to say that," He said quietly.

Shepard propped himself up and gazed at him. In the soft light of their bedroom his eyes were very blue, stubble dusting his jaw and chin. He was scruffy still, like the boy Steve when he was just out of high school and the Alliance had come calling. Most of the people as the Systems Alliance Military Academy had been top of their classes, squared-away, had worked hard to get there. Or rich.

Robert Shepard had waltzed in wearing his scuffed leather jacket, his attitude and those blue, blue eyes. He hadn't gone to high school. He'd gotten in on his exceedingly high scores in basic and a few good words from the right people. He'd come out with a commission, an invitation to ICT and Steve's ring on his finger.

"It's just a shake-down cruise," Robert said softly, the pads on his callused fingers trailing across Steve's stomach.

"I know," Steve said, but they both knew Shepard was reassuring himself. N7s got the most dangerous missions, the ones deep into places the Alliance denied any activity in, the ones without support. Being XO of an experimental warship was a little safer, right?

Shepard kissed him, before resting his forehead against Steve's chest, "I was hoping for a little more time off."

As had Steve. He'd gotten used to finding Shepard's clothes scattered around the apartment, coming home to find the husband on the couch, drinking beer and watching sports. Reacting to a raised eyebrow with protests that he needed to catch up, because he was 'football deprived'. Most of those afternoons ended up with Steve pushing him down, tasting his mouth and the alcohol there.

"I know," Steve repeated, wrapping his arm around Shepard's back, "It's just another tour." They were both soldiers. Time spent apart was their sacrifice. Another kiss, deeper, harder. One to keep for the months apart. Shepard pressed himself closer.

In the morning Robert slung his bag over his shoulder, looking tall and broad shouldered in his uniform, the stripes of his rank across his shoulders and his medals on his chest. He had so many he'd had to pin them through the material and into a bit of cardboard to stop the jacket from tearing.

Today they launched the SSV Normandy, a mixture of human and turian technology and a trophy for improved relations. Terra Firma was apparently protesting.

Robert kissed him on the mouth and Steve could feel the stubble he refused to shave off because it was a 'special forces privelege'

"See ya around, lieutenant," Shepard said with a lop-sided grin.

"You bet," Said Steve. Around them Arcturus Station bustled; most of the inhabitants in the suits that declared them employees of the SA government or the firms that grew off it. There were a few soldiers scattered around them, and two Marines guarding the entrance to the bay that the Normandy inhabited.

They've done this before. The Alliance usually tried to keep married couples together. But Shepard was valuable with a capital V and soon Steve would be heading off to his own post, commanding a flight deck on one of the new carriers or maybe a star base on a colony somewhere.

Robert stepped forward, pressed them together, his arms tight around Steve, almost crushing the air out of him. He smelled like clean sweat and leather. "I love you, yeah?"

"Love you too." Steve said, hugging him back fiercely, "You go out there and do what you have to do, okay? Then we'll get some real leave this time and go somewhere. Barcelona maybe."

"Sounds like a plan," Shepard grinned that smile again, kissed him one last time and then he was walking past the Marines, flashing his ID at them. They snapped to attention and suddenly it wasn't his Robert, his silly, cocky husband with that grin and those eyes, but Lieutenant Commander Shepard, poster-boy of the Alliance with his hard jaw and steel eyes.

He didn't look back.

**a/n: fill for masskink prompt 'Robert!Shepard/Cortez Always married'. Also this fic's fault that I haven't finished chapter three of A Hole in the Sun Yet O_o. **


	2. Chapter 2

It all happened so quickly. The galaxy changed underneath his feet.

Arcturus Station rang with the news. Bars were quiet but for the buzz of newsreaders' voices. War. Eden Prime. The graves of two battalions. The first human Spectre.

Robert was the first human Spectre.

Steve went with a few friends to their favourite bar and spent the night watching his husband's face on the HV, his deep voice rolling into the ears of billions. Anger sparked in his chest when that reporter went after him, folded into pride when Robert talked circles around her, tangled her up in her own questions.

"Esteban," Lieutenant James Vega thumped into the seat across from him, the drinks in his big hands threatening to spill over, "You look like you need a drink. Or you being too serious again?"

Steve took one of the drinks, took a sip. Jerked a thumb at the screen, "Robert's gone and gotten himself into a war, James." Robert was one of those men who would do that, one of those men who nly knew how to live with danger held close along their chests.

James has only met his husband a few times, but he's heard stories. The real ones. The ones of the man who kicked off the covers even in the middle of winter, who always drank from the milk carton.

"He's good at that, si?"

Robert had always been good at getting in trouble. In the Academy, he'd been confined to base a few times for getting into fights. When he'd finished ICT training, he'd disappeared for a few months and come back with three new scars to join the others. Scars that wrote his life; scars of his time on Earth-the times he didn't talk about-of when he broke his nose when he climbed into Steve's dorm at the Academy.

Steve said, "Yeah."

Vega shifted, a bit uncomfortably. Vega wasn't good at the whole emotions thing. At all, "He'll be alright. He's Commander fucking Shepard, yeah?"

"I know he will," Steve replied, taking another sip, "Just hate that he's out there fighting, and I'm not."

"We'll get our turn, amigo," Vega replied, clinking their glasses together, "Command ain't gonna let people as good as us sit around while there's flashlights to shoot."

"You keep telling yourself that, Mr Vega," Steve retorted.

"I will."

That night he got home to find his private terminal blinking at him. He settled in front of it with his dinner-some five minute meal, because he had a ridiculous amount of paperwork to hand into his CO and besides, cooking was no fun without a sexy husband who liked Italian.

The screen flickered to show Robert, lounging on the actual bed he got thanks to being captain*, one hand folded behind his head, "Hey Steve. Just thought I'd drop you a word, yeah?" He smiled, his teeth white, "Don't need to worry about me. I've got a good crew aboard. Even collected a krogan," He laughed, "My pilot is good-very good. Bit insubordinate, but I like him."

"Of course you do," Steve muttered.

"My RSM, Gunny Williams, she's got a bit of a…I dunno. I'm a bit concerned about her mental state. She's very eager to prove herself. But she's a damned fine NCO. She and Lieutenant Alenko work well together too, which is all you can ask."

Shepard paused then, ran a hand through his hair, "But I didn't call you to tell you about my crew. Obviously I can't tell you too much of what's going on, except what's already common knowledge," He rolled his eyes, "The council and OPSEC aren't apparently on speaking terms."

Cortez grinned a little at that.

"Sorry you didn't get to be there at the ceremony-there wasn't much warning," Shepard tilted his head in that way he had, "But next time something historically significant happens I'll try to make sure you've got time to get there. Instead of just getting, 'Okay, okay we believe you now. Oh, you're a spectre now." Robert rolled his eyes.

A distant voice, "Hey Skipper, council wants to talk to you!"

Shepard sighed, "I gotta go, Steve. I love you. Stay safe." The screen went black and morphed into his vidmail inbox.

Mark message as new. Delete. Save.

Save? Y/N

Y

That was how it went. A few messages a week, dependant on when the Normandy connected to a comm buoy.

"Guess what I did today, honey? I killed a geth armature. Well. I told Liara to Lift it. I was joking. She actually did it. I'm a little scared of asari now."

"Hey, Robert. Just wondering how you are. You looked a little tired in the last message. You sleeping okay? Love you."

"Steve, did you know what happens when you drive a tank through a mass relay? I actually managed to break a Mako."


	3. Chapter 3

Steve had been to the Citadel a few times before, when he'd been a fighter pilot aboard the SSV Fuji and Robert had been commanding one of its Marine companies. There were a few nice bars around, even a few that catered specifically to the Alliance military and served drinks like the Hackett Hellstorms. After all, a man couldn't be famous and beloved of the enlisted without having a drink named after him.

This wasn't like those visits.

He watched the feeds from the shuttle's cameras, the news that hadn't shut up about the battle for the past week. Saw the wreckage of destroyed ships, asari, turian, human, geth, anonymous in shards of metal. The holes punched into the Citadel itself. The war with the geth had generally been considered a human war with the STG and Spectres assisting. Not anymore.

They'd struck at the very core of galactic civilisation. They'd nearly destroyed the Destiny Ascension, largely regarded as the most feared vessel in the galaxy.

Now the Arcturus-Citadel shuttle, route AA334, slid through the space of the serpent nebula, through the debris field. The camera on one of the news reports panned to show where the Citadel tower had been smashed open. They said Robert had done that, had walked up the side of the tower fighting geth all the way until he'd found and killed Saren.

It sounded like something Robert would do.

The hospital was white, clean. Many of the doctors were asari, which he guessed made sense since they'd have hundreds of years to gather experience. No wonder humans complained about always losing out on administrative jobs on the Citadel.

The hospital was demure, professional. One of the better hospitals on the Citadel, and that was saying something. The Alliance was paying for the best for their new hero. Afterall, they'd be getting a hike in recruitment over this.

"I'm here for Robert Shepard," he said to the asari behind the reception desk.

She looked at him, and the pale markings above her eyes seemed to rise like a human's eyebrow would, "I'm afraid we can't let just anyone into see him, sir."

He had a feeling being married to someone ridiculously famous was going to get frustrating fast, "Look, I'm his husband."

That white marking seemed to rise even further. Steve valiantly resisted the urge to sigh.

"Look it up in his file. I'm listed as his next of kin. Flight Lieutenant Steve Cortez, service number 789 991 231." They were each other's only family. The thought of losing him wrapped hard cold hands around his heart and squeezed.

There was a pause as she tapped away at her holopad. Then she lowered her voice, "Room 223. Take the elevator up to level three. There's been reporters trying to get to him, so we've had to take precautions. I apologise for the delay."

Finally.

Shepard almost looked peaceful, his head rolled to the side, his arm flung out like he was reaching for something. If you ignored the bandaged pale against his skin. The doctors told him that he'd nearly gotten crushed by bits of Sovereign, that his crew had thought him dead before he'd walked out of the mess of twisted metal, grinning.

"Idiot," Steve muttered.

"Ouch," Robert croaked, "My heart is broken."

"More than your heart," Steve pointed out dryly, taking his uninjured hand in between his. His skin was rough, callused.

Shepard opened his eyes and they were startling, intense, "Steve."

"What is it?" That look…he'd never seen Robert look like that. Look like he was afraid. Terrified. Robert went into danger with a cocky grin.

"They're coming," Robert whispered, his voice torn with the words.

Steve swallowed the lump suddenly in his throat, "Who?"

"The Reapers," Robert whispered, laughed, a little cracked around the edges, "Like Sovereign. But more of them. The beacon showed me them. Thousands of them. You have to believe me."

"I believe you," He gently put his hand on his husband's shoulder, just to make sure he'd stay there.

"You have to. I saw them, and they're trying to deny it, Steve-"

"I believe you," He repeated again, softly. He pressed his lips to his. The stubble had almost become a beard. "I promise you."

"I can't let them win again," Shepard whispered but then his eyes were fluttering closed.

In the end, Shepard received four new medals. One from every Council race, including the Alliance. the doctors said the injuries would heal quickly, that his genemods and his luck had stood by him, but Steve knew, standing in the crowd in his dress blues, that Robert was in pain.

But he stood proud, straight, like the officer and the man he was. The dreams that kept him awake had disappeared into his eyes.

Steve loved him for that proud shell and soft parts underneath.

…

"They're sending you to fight geth." Steve paced. Shepard lounged on their bed in his boxers, arms knotted behind his head. He'd only recently a clean bill of health and there were a few more scars Steve could trace with his mouth.

"It's politics, Steve," Robert said tiredly, "They want to prove they're doing something."

"You just fought in a war," Steve pointed out.

"Not the only one."

"You ended a war."

Robert sighed heavily, "Look, geth holdouts are the least of my worries. I've fought worse. I'll be okay."

Steve sighed, "And what about-the Reapers?"

Robert's muscles tightened into tension, "I'll think of something. I always do."

That smile wasn't quite genuine.

"C'mere. All that pacing is making me dizzy." Steve gave in and slid into the bed beside him and Robert was smiling at him as he slid his arms around him.


End file.
